TTP claims Ehsanullah being 'used for propaganda'

The Taliban in Pakistan have accused the country's premier intelligence service of using a notorious captured militant leader to give the impression the group is being funded by foreign spy agencies to orchestrate attacks, a militant spokesman said.

Meanwhile, two Pakistani intelligence officials said Thursday an overnight US drone strike killed seven militants in a tribal region near the Afghan border, the first such strike since 2014.

Mohammad Khurasani, spokesman for Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, commented late Wednesday after the Pakistan Army released a video of militant Ehsanullah Ehsan. In the video, the ex-spokesman of the group said he surrendered to authorities after seeing his leaders receiving help from Indian and Afghan intelligence services to orchestrate attacks in Pakistan.

Nafees Zakaria, spokesman for Pakistan's foreign ministry, said Thursday that Ehsan had laid down arms and revealed the role of foreign spy agencies in attacks in Pakistan.

However, Khurasani said Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence was using a "prisoner" for propaganda against the group. He refuted what he called ISI's "childish" acts and "non-serious" claims of Ehsan.

Scores of attacks claimed by Ehsan in the past include the 2012 attack on teenage Nobel Prize winner Malala Yousafzai, who was shot in the head in Swat for her advocacy for women's education.

Ehsan quit Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan in 2014 and joined the Jamaat-ul-Ahrar group. He was a senior figure in that group before his surrender to authorities. Jamaat-ul-Ahrar is behind dozens of attacks on civilians and Pakistan security agencies.

Pakistan Army officials have said that the head of the Pakistani Taliban, Mullah Fazalullah, has ordered scores of attacks, including the assault on Malala, and that he is hiding in Afghanistan.

Shahhussain Murtazawi, acting spokesman for Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, said Afghanistan is in a war against terrorism and Kabul has never supported terrorism against others. Without naming Pakistan, he said Kabul expects other states not to allow their soil to be used to stage attacks against Afghanistan.

There was no immediate comment from India.

Ehsan on Wednesday alleged that his leadership's relations with Afghan and Indian intelligence grew after Pakistan launched a campaign against militants in North Waziristan in 2014, forcing insurgents to flee across the border to Afghanistan.

The media was not given access to Ehsan to independently confirm why he surrendered or when. It was unclear whether he will be tried for his past role against Pakistan.

Meanwhile, an overnight US drone strike killed seven militants in a tribal region near the Afghan border, according to two intelligence officials, who said the strike in Zuwai village in North Waziristan was the first since 2014 when Pakistan launched a major military operation there. The officials said Thursday no high value militant was killed in the strike. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorised to talk to media on the record.

Pakistan's military claimed in a statement it killed several militants in overnight strikes after they tried to sneak into the country in the northwest. It gave no further details and it was not possible to independently confirm whether there were any militant casualties.